THE Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has backed calls for price mechanisms in the dairy sector to come under the Groceries Code Adjudicator.

Anne MacIntosh, MP for Thirsk, Malton and Filey and chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, has asked Environment Secretary Liz Truss to consider extending the Adjudicators powers to the dairy sector.

Stephen Wyrill, TFA national chairman, said: "The TFA would support that call. We need a pricing structure which benefits all parts of the supply chain from producer to consumer.

"If the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator were to be extended in this way it might be possible to broker a sustainable settlement perhaps using the recently announced milk formula suggested by Farmers for Action as a starting point."

Mr Wyrill said dairy farmers had been told to work within the marketplace, become less dependent on support policies and to drive efficiencies within their businesses - all of which they have done and will continue to do.

"But we cannot get away from the facts that dairy farmers produce a perishable product, face long production cycles, exposure to the elements, battles with livestock disease and an unbalanced relationship with its processor/retailer customer base," he said, "It is for these reasons that frustrated dairy farmers are expressing their discontent through the protests ably organised by Farmers for Action”.

Mr Wyrill said an average of 16 dairy farmers a week are giving up milk production in England and Wales.

"Processors and retailers rely upon portraying to their customers an image of the industry of healthy cows being looked after by benevolent but skilful farm families in traditional, outdoor units," he said, "However, by their actions they are driving these types of production systems to the wall.

"It is time processors and retailers began to invest in these values before they disappear altogether. In its place we will have ever-increasing herd sizes based on indoor systems on a very large scale. Not that there isn’t a place for those type of systems but consumers surely want the confidence of knowing that the products they purchase match the brand values they espouse in reality."

o The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers will next week meet leading MPs to share its deep concern over the current farm gate milk price trends.

It will meet with Neil Parish, chairman of the Dairy All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), who has called a joint industry round table discussion with other concerned MPs to try and understand why and how the current crisis has occurred.

Ian Macalpine, RABDF chairman, said: "We fully understand that the current fall in farm gate milk prices reflects the global trend and shares the plight of all those involved throughout the chain. Farmgate prices have fallen by up to 30 per cent in the last three months and there are threats of further cuts.

“Dairy farmers have accepted that there will be price volatility in future, and while these current trends are extreme, we have to find a way forward to enable dairy farmers to maintain a sustainable business.

“RABDF together with DairyUK has developed the newly launched Dairy APPG which is giving us a direct route to informing MPs about the current crisis and the opportunity to consider options which will provide a solution.”